Why James Gunn’s Superman Might Be the Most Eye-Poppingly Disturbing Superhero Movie Yet

Superman 2025 and James Gunn’s Eye-Watering Obsession

The 2025 Superman reboot starring David Corenswet is a hit with both critics and audiences, making a strong impression at the box office. But beyond the usual superhero action, there’s a surprisingly gruesome theme that runs through the film—and it’s all about eyes. If you’re squeamish about eye injuries, this might be a tough watch.

The film features intense eye-related violence, especially in fights against a kaiju and villains like Ultraman and the Engineer.
James Gunn’s signature style includes unsettling eye mutilation scenes, continuing a trend seen in his previous movies.
The Suicide Squad’s finale involves brutal attacks on a giant eyeball creature, Starro.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Brightburn also showcase disturbing eye-related horror moments.
The author admits to self-diagnosing with ommetaphobia—a fear of eyes—after researching these films.

The Eye Attacks in Superman

Early in the movie, Lex Luthor unleashes a kaiju on Metropolis. This giant monster behaves like a natural disaster, causing chaos and nearly harming a dog too distracted to run. The Justice Gang—Guy Gardner (Green Lantern), Mr. Terrific, and Hawkgirl—join Superman to take down the beast. Their strategy? Target the eyes. Hawkgirl swings her mace and it gets gruesomely stuck in one eye, while Guy Gardner pounds on the other with a pointy construct. It’s quick but definitely unsettling.

Later, Superman faces the Engineer, who uses her nanobot body to attack his face and eyes in a disturbing scene of body horror—quite unexpected for a superhero movie.

James Gunn’s Eye Horror Signature

If you’re wondering why so many eye injuries appear in Superman, it’s classic James Gunn. In the 2021 The Suicide Squad, the finale pits the team against Starro, a giant psychic starfish with a massive eyeball. Harley Quinn stabs through the eye with a javelin, then swims inside it, followed by a swarm of rats that devour Starro from within. It’s a grotesque, phobia-inducing moment.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 also delivers creepy eye-related visuals, featuring a walrus character with cybernetic parts that forcibly keep its eyes open. Nebula’s backstory includes Thanos replacing her eyes with cybernetic versions, adding to the disturbing imagery.

Even though James Gunn didn’t direct it, he produced 2019’s Brightburn, a horror twist on the Superman origin story. It contains one of the most realistic and disturbing eye injury scenes, involving a shard of glass stuck in a character’s eye.

Ommetaphobia: The Fear of Eyes

While digging into these eye mutilation scenes, the author discovered ommetaphobia, a fear of eyes. Self-diagnosed as part of the “WebMD hypochondria” generation, the author admits these scenes can be anxiety-inducing, even if they don’t trigger full panic attacks.

The “injury to eye” trope is well-known in horror and is especially prominent in Gunn’s work. Even just close-ups of eyes, like in the zombie film 28 Weeks Later, can be enough to make some viewers look away.

So, James Gunn, if you’re reading this: maybe give the eyes a break next time. They’re scary enough without adding mace or nanobots.